“PMI standards are essential for project success because they provide a commonframework for how to do projects,” he says. “What’s good about A Guide to theProject Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) is, it’s a language that isshared by people from very different perspectives.”By working together to leverage lessons learned from the initial scope, the teamimproved its performance by up to 40 percent for some activities. A monthly criticalpath analysis was one way the team was able to beat its goal, Mr. Noël says.

“We did detailed scheduling of critical components,” he says. “We did things likeexpediting procurement items. We measured performance. This helped us under-stand where we were drifting.”Monitoring progress carefully and taking corrective action quickly also allowedthe project team to control costs. At one point, forecasts predicted the final costwould come in slightly over budget. But at completion, the project was well withinRio Tinto’s budget allocation.

The work paid off. The team made up the additional month it had added to the
schedule and handed the project over to the operations team in December 2012—
the original project delivery date.

Along with proving the viability of RTA’s proprietary technology at full production
scale, the project provided lessons learned during the plant’s construction that can be
leveraged during later installations. And the RTA project community is better for it,
Mr. Charron says.

“We’re ready for any future phase,” he says. “And we’re ready to sell our technology in the market. So that’s pretty good news for the corporation.” PM

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